10 of the Worst Beauty Trends of All Time

Beauty fades, but these terrible beauty trends will live on forever in embarrassing high school yearbook photos.

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Tadpole Eyebrows

Tweezers can be a dangerous tool for the novice eyebrow plucker. There was an era when a "tadpole" style (thick to thin, over-arched, overplucked with just a few hairs to create a shape) was completely normal. The trend didn’t last long, but growing back and re-shaping brows is no easy fix.

Perms

Taking crimping to the next (bad idea) level were perms that resulted in tight curls and probably a few bald spots. Today, many salons still offer soft and wavy perms but they are a far cry from the overprocessed, chemically laden, high maintenance risk they were 30 years ago.

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Crimped Hair

Kinked hair is something most people want to avoid, but sometime in the '80s women were convinced to hold a hot iron precariously close to their scalps in order to get that unflattering coiled look. The end result was disaster top to bottom: the crimp was always too far from the crown (because the iron was that hot) and the process made ends dry. To top it off, frizzing came on fast and furious.

Insane '80s Bangs

“I woke up like this” is a popular beauty mantra thanks to Beyonce, but “I walked into a wall” more suits this look, which was popular with men and women in the '80s. Taking backcombing to completely unnecessary heights, getting “big bangs” required loads of backcombing, mousse, and hairspray that had the holding power of cement.

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Fake Moles

Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Cindy Crawford–a mole can definitely be a beauty’s trademark. But creating a fake dot on the face, which would eventually smudge or disappear, never quite captured the glamour of the real thing.

Primary Colour Eyeshadows

Every season, a beauty editor will declare that “blue is back”! The truth is, blue (and green, yellow, red) are extremely hard to pull off for every skin tone for the at-home makeup artist. It invariably looks chalky, outdated and cheap. Celebs probably won’t retire this look anytime soon, but remember that they have endless amounts of professional help and products to nail the look.

Hot Pink Blush

Joining blue eyeshadow on the terrible makeup train is pink blush, which, when generously applied, creates two bright circles on the face. What is supposed to complement cheekbones ends up looking like it was inspired by a clown.

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Chunky Blonde Streaks

Subtle was not the order of the day when chunky blonde streaks where painted onto hair, fuelled in part by teen trendsetters like Britney Spears. It had a vague lioness look to it, but colouring large swaths of hair on the crown has given way to more subtle highlights and lowlights.

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Mullet, Side Pony and Rat Tails

The trifecta of '80s hairstyles, each took a significant amount of work to grow out and maintain (and try sleeping with a ponytail on the side of your head). The mullet periodically pops up on fashion-forward celebs like Kesha, but it’s safe to say hair stylists aren’t getting regular requests for the “John Stamos” version.

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Dark Lip Liner

Plump lips have always been in demand, which explains how lining the outside of the lip became a “cheat” for getting that full look (which Kylie Jenner has mastered). The evolution of this look included the dark liner/lighter lipstick/no blending method that looks frustratingly unfinished.